


Sparks

by slashmarks



Category: Werewolf Marines - Lia Silver
Genre: Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 00:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2793143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmarks/pseuds/slashmarks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Echo and Charlie talk about the future after Prisoner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sparks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).



> My giftee asked for, among other options, a poignant moment between siblings in the past. I didn't quite manage the "past" part of it, but here's some Charlie and Echo sibling time (or 'sibling worrying,' more accurately). I hope you like it!
> 
> Warning for discussion of suicide and death similar to canon.

DJ was so obviously miserable upon the return to the closed off world of the base that Echo felt bad about leaving him, but she needed to see Charlie. She had been away for days, and before that they hadn't spent anywhere near as much time with each other than they usually did.

There was strange feeling of hope in her chest, little sparks that made her feel halfway between wonderful and nauseous. Something occurred to her halfway there: if they were going to rescue Charlie from the base, Charlie had to agree. Her sister might think it wasn't worth the risk. (Echo was still barely convinced it was worth it.) Or she might not want to leave their only home – she'd never spent anywhere near as much time outside as Echo, especially since she started getting sick. 

Her heart rate kept leaping up when she wasn't paying attention and she had to slow it again consciously. It was annoying. She leaned in to the retinal scanner and then walked in. 

Charlie was absent – probably eating lunch in the cafeteria, Echo realized belatedly, checking the time. She and DJ had eaten late on the drive back, in the nearest town. 

She glanced around the living room of their – Charlie's apartment, hoping that she would be back soon. But did that mean DJ would be gone too? Whether because he had successfully broken Ray out and ran, or because he had gotten killed trying...

Her heart rate was up again. The price of the fact that it kept beating on its own without her attention was that it behaved like a normal human heart in other ways, too. Echo slowed it and her breathing and walked around the apartment.

They didn't have a lot of belongings to make clutter with, but Charlie had managed it. There were several romance novels tossed across the couch along with a scarf she must have discarded on her way out. Her spare cane, the one with the blue and silver stripes from when she was a teenager, was on the floor by the bedroom. Charlie had probably been wearing something that matched it recently.

Echo picked up the cane, put the scarf back in their bedroom on Charlie's dresser, and sat down on the couch to stack the books on the coffee table. 

She stroked the fabric of the couch absently, closing her eyes. Most of the furniture in their apartment was new, but the couch had been moved from the one they'd shared with Brava. She could still smell her sister sometimes if she pressed her face into the cushions and breathed in. Echo had been told she smelled like spring, new green leaves. Charlie was autumn. Brava had been summer, plants in full maturity and accompanied by ripening fruit. She also smelled wetter, like a rainforest instead of Charlie and Echo's matched temperate zone. You could almost hear water running when breathing in against her hair...

Echo felt her tear ducts tighten and breathed in slowly, sitting up. She shut down the stinging in her eyes and looked at the romance novels instead, examining their covers. She read _Love Bites #4: Eternally Sexy_ and muffled a giggle. Werewolf novels might be too much like real life, but apparently other paranormal romance was perfectly okay.

She was trying to figure out whether the woman on the cover was supposed to be double jointed or just had a dislocated shoulder when the door opened and Charlie came in.

“Oh, hey.” She smiled at Echo, walking over to drop onto the couch and lean her cane up against the coffee table. “You're back! How was Vegas?”

“Okay,” she said. She had intended to keep the conversation focused but found she was blushing. Dammit!

“And how was DJ?” Charlie's smile turned into a wicked grin.

“He's good at sparring.” Echo refused to give in that easily. “His style's different from mine. He managed to throw me a couple of times, and I'll need to practice grappling with a larger opponent.”

“Grappling, huh?” Charlie's eyebrows waggled.

Echo blushed again and gave up. “He's good in bed, too.”

“You tease. Tell me more.” Charlie tugged her hair out of its braid. “You can brush my hair while you're at it, my arms are tired.”

Echo got up to retrieve the brush from the bedroom. Unless Charlie had been out for a long time that morning – entirely possible if, um, Kevin still? had been around – she probably wasn't too tired to manage her hair herself, but even if they weren't as touch-oriented as the werewolves, they still liked it. Humans weren't meant to live without touch either.

Echo came back and sat on the couch behind Charlie, starting at the ends of her hair by her hips. “He likes having his clothes torn off,” she said, picking a detail she figured was most likely to interest Charlie.

“Oh, kinky. Was the sex during the sparring?”

“Kind of.” Echo concentrated very hard on disentangling a knot in Charlie's fine white hair. She had had long hair once, too, but it tangled and got in the way, and the other thing about white hair was that it held blood stains permanently. At least until bleached.

“He really does remind me of Brava.” Charlie sighed quietly.

And with that, the thing she'd meant to talk to about this visit was back on the front of Echo's brain. “Just a second, let me go get the comb for this,” she said for the benefit of any new bugs, getting up.

Charlie gave her a significant look and nodded as Echo went and scanned each room for new bugs. There weren't any. Maybe Charlie was just less interesting to spy on than Echo. She felt a wave of rage at that. Charlie was always the spare one, as soon as Echo started really being used for her purpose. They kept her around to control Echo, nothing more.

She took the comb from the dresser after she finished her scan and went back to disentangling Charlie's hair. “Are you happy?” she asked, abruptly.

Charlie didn't answer right away. After several moments she said, “More or less. I have enough to eat and a place to sleep. I have things to do and people to talk to. Maybe they're not the kind of friends I'd make off base, but I've never been around anyone else for long, so maybe I wouldn't get along with other people. I have my pain meds and the base hospital for when I get sick. I have you.”

“But you wouldn't miss it. If we left, I mean.”

“Echo.” Charlie pulled away from her hands, wincing a little as the brush jarred her hair, and turned to face her. “What did DJ talk you into?”

“Nothing!” she protested immediately. Charlie gave her an immediate look of complete disbelief, and Echo felt bad. “I mean, he hasn't talked me into doing anything. He just – he wants to leave and rescue his friend, I told you about that, and he keeps trying to talk me into believing we could get you out so both of us could come, too.”

Charlie seemed to relax fractionally. “Do you think he's right?”

“I don't know,” she admitted. “I mean, the base has had your whole life to figure out what you need, but – how obscure is what they do for you, really? Is it just normal life support? His family has connections, so we could make sure you were always around a hospital who knew what was wrong with you. I'm not a doctor, I don't know – it would only be if you wanted to go, though. And maybe,” she said, feeling the thought form, “Maybe they'd be able to come up with a – a solution. I mean, the base knows if you were ever healthy we'd escape, they don't want you well—” 

“I'm going to die, Echo,” Charlie said. “Whether I'm on the base or not.”

“Maybe,” Echo said.

“Definitely, I'm going to die.” Charlie glared until she stopped protesting. “Everyone dies. Probably I'm going to die soon. There isn't a miracle cure for me. The question is whether I want to die in the base, probably in a few years, or out of the base, maybe in a few years or maybe in a few months or maybe right away when we get shot escaping.”

“So no?” Echo asked.

Charlie grabbed the cane and got up, pacing across the room. The rubber tip thwacked hard into the floor alongside her footsteps. “I don't know. My life expectancy is yours, and if I do something that might kill me earlier – have you ever really thought about how I feel about this, Echo? I love you, you're my sister, I don't want you to die.”

“I don't have anything else to live for. I don't want to live when you're gone.” Echo crossed her arms and watched.

Charlie irritably fisted her free hand in her skirt. “I know. If we go with DJ and don't get killed, you'll have him and his family.”

“We had sex one time.”

“You're falling for him, I can tell, and I don't want to be replaced but if it means I'm not your entire life then _good_.” Charlie took a deep breath. “He's a good guy, and werewolf packs that aren't completely fucked up like the pack take care of their own. If we leave, will you promise me one thing?”

Echo could see this coming. She didn't answer.

“Echo. I want you to promise that if we leave, you won't kill yourself when I die.” When Echo stayed silent, Charlie continued, “A year, okay? Wait one year and see if you still want to die.”

Echo nodded reluctantly. A year was nothing, right? Just twelve months. Fifty-two weeks. “Okay. I promise. But – you aren't just agreeing to this because you think it might help me, are you?”

Charlie made her way slowly back to the couch, the burst of energy apparently gone, and sat back down. “I'm not unhappy here. I have books and I have friends. But it's like living in a box, or a rat maze. I'm okay with my adventures sticking to books, but I wish I could go clubbing when I want to or just take a walk sometimes. And I know it bothers you more than me. So – if DJ comes up with a plan and you think it'll work, and if his family finds a hospital who think they can keep me alive, then yes, I'll come.”

Echo leaned over to hug Charlie hard. “Thank you,” she whispered. The little sparks of hope in her chest had become a bonfire.


End file.
